The Department Has Tapped Former Journalists, Now Officers, to Write Full-Length Copy

The New York Police Department's Facebook page has taken on a role that was once largely limited to the city's press corps: publishing news articles.

It is part of a push to both bolster the department's social media presence and to find ways to get its message directly to its nearly 250,000 followers on the social media site. The department also has more than 106,000 Twitter followers.